


to be in a moment with you

by waveridden



Category: Friends at the Table (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Criminals, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, Season: Spring in Hieron, Secret Relationship, Undercover Missions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-12
Updated: 2019-12-12
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:46:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21763204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/waveridden/pseuds/waveridden
Summary: “Adaire Ducarte,” Hella says, keeping her voice as neutral as possible until she closes the door behind her. She leans on it for a second, putting her weight behind it to make sure that it’s fully closed and sealed, before glaring at Adaire. “What the hell are you doing here?”(Or: the one where they're all criminals and Hella is undercover as a cop.)
Relationships: Adaire Ducarte/Hella Varal
Comments: 2
Kudos: 13
Collections: 2019 AU December Challenge





	to be in a moment with you

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is part of the AUcember series, a self-made challenge where I try to write a new AU one-shot every day. You can read all of the AUcember fics in the collection linked above. Title is from About Work the Dancefloor by Georgia.
> 
> CONTENT WARNINGS: there are police officers, who are shitty people. Also, a gun appears, but nobody gets shot.

“We found her skulking around the museum,” Carlay explains, voice low. They lead Hella through the precinct halls, ignoring the curt nods that both of them receive. Perks of being local legends: they get all the respect, but nobody actually wants to deal with them. “So we brought her in - covertly as possible, of course.”

Hella makes a frustrated noise low in the back of her throat. “You arrested her just for skulking?”

“I made up some reason about loitering, or criminal records, or-” Carlay waves a hand in the air. “I don’t remember what I said, that’s not important.”

“It’s a little important!”

“She has enough of a record that it’s not suspicious for us to bring her in.”

Hella sighs. “If you say so.”

“I do say so.” Carlay stops in front of an interrogation room. “Nobody’s going to come looking for a bit. There’s going to be a problem with the paperwork, and Chief Malle won’t hear about it for at least fifteen minutes.”

“And at most?”

“I can’t give you at most, Varal, you know that.”

“I know,” Hella mutters. “I just- ugh, you know?”

“No,” Carlay says, but there’s something pulling at the corner of their mouth that makes Hella think that they know exactly. “Fifteen minutes.” They bump their shoulder against Hella’s as they turn and walk away, down through the labyrinthine halls.

Hella takes a deep breath and squares her shoulders. Fifteen minutes isn’t much time, but it has to be enough to get what she needs out of this conversation.

Adaire looks up as soon as the door opens, and her mouth quirks into a smile. “Well, well, Officer Varal, we meet again.”

“Adaire Ducarte,” Hella says, keeping her voice as neutral as possible until she closes the door behind her. She leans on it for a second, putting her weight behind it to make sure that it’s fully closed and sealed, before glaring at Adaire. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“Whoa, whoa.” Adaire lifts her hands in a universal don’t-shoot gesture, empty handcuffs clattering on the table as she does. Hella makes a mental note to ask Carlay if they actually handcuffed Adaire and she got out; it seems like the kind of thing she should know. “We hadn’t heard from you in a while, and the boys were starting to get antsy.”

“I’m undercover,” Hella says exasperatedly. She drops into the chair across from Adaire, trying to still look intimidating. There’s a security camera by the door, behind Hella’s right shoulder. The odds are slim that anyone is watching, but if this goes how she’s expecting it to go, people are going to want to review this footage. “You can tell Hadrian to calm down.”

“I’m sure that’ll go over great,” Adaire says, with the silky kind of deadpan sarcasm that she uses when she’s particularly annoyed. “I know you’re undercover, but that doesn’t mean we can’t worry.”

“Carlay and I are still gathering information for the university.”

“I’m not here to extract you.”

“Then why are you here?” Adaire opens her mouth, but Hella lifts a hand. “Really, Adaire, why are you here?”

Adaire lets out a breath of frustration. “Is it so hard to believe that I just wanted to see you?”

“Maybe I just wanted to hear you say it,” Hella says. “I miss you too. They didn’t hurt you when they brought you in, did they?”

“What, Carlay?” Adaire snorts. “They know better than to let that happen.”

“Things still happen in Ordennan prisons, Adaire.”

“Yeah, but I’m fine, see?” Adaire lifts her hands - not wearing gloves, Hella notices with some surprise - and waves them in the air. “Ten fingers, all intact. And I warned Ephrim and Fero before I came here, so they’ll be here pretty soon.”

“You picked  _ Ephrim and Fero? _ ”

“Fero’s good at causing chaos, but I don’t trust him to get me out in one piece.”

“But you trust Ephrim,” Hella says skeptically. “I know he’s leading the University group right now, but trust is a strong word.”

“I don’t trust many people,” Adaire says, and arches an eyebrow at Hella, like this isn’t Hella’s entire point. “I just know that he thinks I’m an asset.”

“You are an asset.”

“You like my assets.”

“It’s good to see you,” Hella says. Her hands are aching with how badly she wants to reach out and touch Adaire, to take her hands and to check her wrists for bruises from the cuffs, to feel the solid warmth of her under Hella’s hands.

Adaire’s eyes flick to the camera for a second before she leans in conspiratorially. “You too,” she admits, and Hella feels a wave of warmth. “Your hair looks ridiculous, by the way.”

Hella automatically lifts her hand to her hair, which is wound into the tightest, most headache-inducing bun in the world. Ordennan police are very particular about custom, and unfortunately, Hella still knows most of the customs. “This sucks,” she mutters. “I’ll stay here as long as I need, but-”

“We’re hoping not to need you here for much longer.”

“And why’s that?”

“We’ve got…” Adaire waves a hand absently. “Plans, and things. Don’t worry about it. It’s mostly me and Ephrim right now, but we’ll be checking in with you a little more as it gets closer.”

“As what gets closer?”

She sighs. “Okay, it’s mostly Ephrim’s plan, I’m not completely sure yet. But he keeps saying that we’re getting close to being able to pull you out and get you back home.”

“I didn’t realize how awful Ordenna was until I was back in it.” Hella grimaces, despite not completely meaning to. “The University might be a crime syndicate-”

“According to Ordenna, maybe.”

“A vigilante group?”

“An organized crime group.”

“A mob,” Hella says dryly, and Adaire grins. “Anyways, at least we care about people’s lives, you know?”

“I know,” Adaire says, with that gentle tone to her voice that always makes Hella weak in the knees. It’s a side of Adaire that rarely comes out. So often they have to be the public-facing versions of themselves, a master thief and a master fighter, two people who have trained themselves out of caring for anyone and anything. But sometimes Adaire looks at Hella like this, talks to Hella like this, in ways that remind Hella about exactly how much she cares. It’s overwhelming in the warmest way.

Hella sighs. “Do you know when your pickup is?”

“Should be in a couple minutes, actually.”

“Really? Fero must be really bored.”

“So bored,” Adaire says. “I think once you’re back you’re gonna have to take him to, like, rob a rich person’s secret vault or something. Ephrim keeps putting him on normal jobs.”

“Classic university bonding,” Hella says. She can hear yelling in the hallway behind her, and she has to repress a sigh. “Your ride’s here.”

“Sounds like it.” Adaire glances at the camera. “You see the blind spot, right?”

“I do.” Hella stands up, trying to look like a cop and not like… like herself. “We’ll have to be quick.”

Adaire raises her eyebrows. “Then you’d better get a move on, right?”

The yelling is getting louder. Hella moves to be in the camera’s blind spot, a narrow corner behind the camera but in front of the door. Adaire follows suit, picking her way across the room cautiously.

But she ends up standing in the blind spot. It’s barely big enough for both of them to stand in it at the same time, but luckily it’s small enough that Adaire has to press her body close against Hella’s, backing her against the door. “I wish I had a good reason to take your hair down,” she mutters, glaring balefully at Hella’s bun.

Hella laughs, grinning down at Adaire. “Believe me, me too.”

Adaire hums, and then leans up. Hella meets her eagerly, relaxing into the kiss right away. She’s been undercover for three months, and she and Adaire have only been able to steal moments like this, between moments of chaos, in camera blindspots.

But it’s still a moment where Hella can shut her eyes and rest her hands on Adaire’s waist and hold her close. Where things get to be blessedly normal.

There’s another shout that sounds remarkably like Ephrim. Adaire lifts the back of her hand to Hella’s cheek, just barely caressing it. “Come home soon.”

“I’m trying,” Hella says, breathless and frustrated. Adaire grins at her, genuine and incredibly  _ bright, _ and it makes Hella’s heart sing.

She reaches behind her and opens the door, careful not to stumble backwards into where she’s sure Ephrim will be waiting. Hopefully not directly behind the door this time; he’s probably smart enough not to do that twice.

“No, please, take your time,” Ephrim says flatly. He’s pointing a gun at Hella, because he’s just as mindful of cameras as Adaire is, but his grip on it is slack. “It’s not like Fero will be arrested if we’re here for too long.”

“I don’t think they can arrest Fero, he doesn’t exist in most legal systems,” Adaire says. Hella steps back, and Adaire goes to join Ephrim. “Thanks for the pickup.”

“Of course.” Ephrim looks at Hella. “You okay?”

“Doing great,” Hella says. “I heard a rumor you’re cooking something up.”

“Working on it. We’ll be in touch.”

“Good.”

“I’ll see you home soon,” Adaire says abruptly. It’s barely sentimental, but it’s the most blatantly hopeful thing Hella has ever heard her say.

“Yeah,” she breathes. “Home soon.”

Adaire doesn’t quite smile at her as she and Ephrim turn to run down the hall, but Hella ends up grinning at her back as she runs away. She only has a couple of minutes before someone figures out that Adaire was here and escaped, and until she starts getting questioned about it. But she can take that minute to catch her breath and come up with a cover story, and most importantly to remember the feeling of Adaire pressed up against her, of the spark in Adaire’s eyes.

“Home soon,” she whispers again. It’s a nice thought.

**Author's Note:**

> If you also like loose random crime AUs, hate cops, and love Hella/Adaire, you can come say hi to me on Tumblr/Twitter @waveridden!


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